In a letter published on April 2, Mr. Richard W. Bauman expressed his outrage at the shooting of Pacifica resident Errol Chang, who was just 34 years old. I would like to add my outrage to his, and it’s not about police performing their duties combating crime, but at the moral turpitude that has permeated the mind of law enforcement when it comes to dealing with people suffering from mental illness: their quickness to use unwarranted deadly force to control a situation, and the fact that these actions garner little reaction and no criticism from the general public.

A nation like ours that gives people the opportunity to amass fortunes in the billions should also provide for the well being and cure of our mentally ill. Instead, just as in the dark ages, people who suffer from a mental disorder are treated like worthless pariahs. I could never understand the senseless procedure used by police when they bark orders and expect them to be obeyed, not by a normal person, but by someone whose mind is trapped in the terror-filled spiderweb of mental illness.

If a disturbed person wants to commit suicide by police, where is it written that the police should oblige? In 2005 a South San Francisco man led the CHP on a chase, a spike strip was used to stop his pickup truck in Belmont, and a dozen officers surrounded the man. He first put his hands up, then told an officer to shoot him, then he held a football size rock over his head and, according to police, he started walking toward them. He didn’t obey a command to stop, so two of the officers shot the man eight times.Last week, the two CHP officers were cleared of all wrongdoing in a civil suit filed against them. Now, can somebody tell me why a dozen officers couldn’t tackle some guy who is holding a rock over his head? What happened to thinking about the use of some alternate methods to reduce someone whose senses are impaired? Why does it always have to be the thoughtless, cheap, final bullet.

Law enforcers seem to always perceive some imminent danger as an excuse to fire at somebody: “I saw a shiny object in his hand,” “He reached for something,” “He made an aggressive gesture,” “I thought my gun was my Tazer,” and the routine excuse that’s going to let them off the hook is: “I feared for my life!” My question is, if these cops fear so much for their lives, what are they doing being cops?

I think it’s all in the mindset given to law enforcement by a post-911 blanket blessing of power beyond question, and a public fascination with militarism a la Germany of the ’20s and ’30s. The most egregious example of this almost divine power bestowed on police happened in Santa Rosa. There, a 13-year-old boy carrying a toy gun was shot and killed by a Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputy. Andy Lopez was walking home with a plastic replica gun in his hand when Deputy Erick Gelhaus and another deputy that Gelhaus was training stopped their car about 20 feet away from Andy and yelled at him to drop the gun. When Andy, who was walking with his back to them, started to turn around to see who was yelling, Gelhaus shot him eight times. The excuse given by Gelhaus was that when Andy started turning around, the barrel of the gun seemed to be rising, so Gelhaus fearing for his life, shot him.

In its writeup of the Chang shooting, the Pacifica Tribune reported: “The same day the Pacifica incident took place, an updated officer-involved shooting protocol was distributed to law enforcement throughout the county for the first time in 10 years. District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, whose department handles all officer-involved shooting investigations in the county, called the update “procedural, not substantive,” and said the amendments would have had no impact on the events leading up to Chang’s death.” “It also added a provision for the creation of an investigation team should a large-scale incident occur with multiple shootings of officers and victims.”

That provision is some good foresight by Wagstaffe. Sadly, however, he is not very clear on the concept.

Because it’s only a matter of time until this proliferation of unwarranted use of deadly force by police creates a situation that involves a deadly shootout between irate relatives, friends of the victim, and law enforcement. So instead of deciding to create an investigation team after something like this happens, Wagstaffe should be creating a team NOW in order to put in place some “substantive” measures so a tragedy like this never happens.

In the short term, Mr. Wagstaffe should looking into some type of tranquilizer gun for humans. Why not extend to the mentally ill, the same courtesy we extend to animals?

A transit village with apartments, retailers, restaurants and a hotel is rising in Milpitas next to The Great Mall, close to light rail and the under-construction BART station. It’s one of several Silicon Valley projects sprouting up near transit.